. /.  
 WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/74 
15 December 2005 
 (05-6061) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
LIECHTENSTEIN 
 
Statement by HE Mrs Rita Keiber-Beck
 
Minister of Foreign Affairs  
  
I would like to start by thanking our hosts and the organizers of this Conference for their hard 
work and hospitality.  My appreciations also go to  you Mr Chairman, to the Director-General of the 
WTO and his staff, and to the Chairperson of the General Council. 
When we embarked on the momentous undertaking years ago in Doha to launch an ambitious 
and broad-based negotiating Round we had the clear  ambition to further strengthen the rules based 
multilateral trading system, and by doing so, the wo rld economy.  And, by calling the Round the Doha 
Development Agenda, we have taken on the comm itment to make the multilateral trading system 
work for developing countries. 
We have made good progress in some are as but in many others we are still facing 
considerable difficulties.  Many among us are concer ned and disappointed with the lack of progress. 
The discussions in Geneva have shown that the task  to reconcile so many di fferent national interests 
and objectives is indeed enormous.  These days  we need courage and vision to negotiate a 
reconciliation of interests.  We all and the globa l economy need a successful and timely conclusion of 
the Round.  Hong K ong might be our last chance to pave the way for it. 
The Round is basically about two objectives, about the further liberalization of world trade 
and about the consideration of the special needs of  developing countries, especially least developed 
countries.  We share and support both objectives a nd we agree that we have to deliver on 
development. 
In order to have a final outcome acceptable to all of us we do need a balanced outcome.  In 
our view we have focused too much on agriculture.  It is important to remember that the Round is 
about much more than agriculture.  Here in Hong  Kong we must aim at equivalent progress in other 
areas. 
In NAMA we would like to see an ambitious formula for tariff reduc tions while supporting 
that least developed countries will not be subject to  the application of the formula.  We should not 
ignore, however, that further market opening and ke eping;  markets open for industrial goods is not a 
one way street.  It can be beneficial for the de veloping and developed countries alike, and this is 
especially true for emerging countries. 
In services as well we should aim at an ambiti ous level of liberalization.  As we know, 
services have developed in most economies into an  engine for economic grow th.  Like others, we 
deplore the little progress produced by the negotiatio ns on GATS up to now.  Liechtenstein has done 
its homework in putting a substantial revised offer on the table. WT/MIN(05)/ST/74 
Page 2  
 
Another key area is agriculture.  Although good progress has been made we recognize that we 
are far from a consensus on modalities.  We all agr ee on the necessity of further agricultural reform. 
We also agree can the fact that agriculture is for many developing countries a key economic sector. 
However, when it comes to the comparative adva ntages in the production and export of agricultural 
products not all developing countri es can be put in the same basket.  We therefore fully support 
special and differential treatment provisions for developing Members and generous market access 
conditions for least developed countries.  We woul d also like to emphasize that all sensitivities and 
non-trade concerns, also ours, have to be taken into account.  Agriculture is in many countries, 
including mine, more than just food production.  In the last decades and years our agricultural sector 
was forced to go through tremendous structural changes.  Today, agriculture acc ounts in Liechtenstein 
for less than one per cent of employment, and of course, we are a net food importer.  Not only would 
it be politically and socially impossible, it woul d in our case be irresponsible for environmental 
reasons to simply ruin the last remaining bit of  our agriculture.  In a fully liberalized market 
environment our type of agriculture could not surviv e.  Therefore, there are limits to what we can 
agree on. 
To conclude, let me state our full support for the development package up for discussion at 
our meeting. 
 Finally, let us remember that we all share th e same vital interest in making our meeting here 
in Hong Kong a success.  With the necessar y spirit of flexibility we will succeed. 
 
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